SAN BERNARDINO – On the front wall of the information booth at Al Houghton Stadium – site of the Little League Western Regional softball and baseball tournaments – hangs a plaque in tribute to the late Elizabeth O’Grady, a volunteer and one of the heroes of local youth sports.

As girls’ softball teams faced off on Sunday, Elizabeth’s husband, John O’Grady, carried on their tradition of welcoming ballplayers and their families to San Bernardino.

“We have a whole lot of people come up and say we appreciate what you’re doing and that’s kind of nice because we do it for the kids,” O’Grady said.

O’Grady, who served as a Little League district administrator and an assistant district administrator for more than 30 years combined, now serves as chairman for a handful of committees comprised of the 150 volunteers that help out before, during and after the games.

The volunteers, many coming from other states on their vacation time, act as scorekeepers, security personnel, grounds-crew workers and souvenir vendors.

“We have a couple of guys we call the ice cream guys,” said Dave Bonham, assistant regional director. Some volunteer to host the teams during tournament week, welcoming them at the airport and tending to their daily needs.

But the one volunteer many single out for praise is O’Grady, an affable man who used to work as a maintenance supervisor for San Bernardino County.

O’Grady has done just about everything there is to do at the Little League Western Regional Headquarters, located in north San Bernardino just east of Interstate 215 and south of Devore.

That includes electrical work and snack bar duty.

“I was here (in 1970) when we took the first shovel of dirt and turned it over,” O’Grady said.

On Sunday, he spent part of the day working on badge-control matters – the tournament at that point had issued roughly 425 security badges to players, managers and volunteers.

The headquarters has been the site of more than 30 Western Regional baseball tournaments for 11 and 12-year-olds, and is in the middle of hosting its first Western Regional softball tournament for girls.

“You develop friendships over the years,” O’Grady said of the people he’s met. “It’s like a family.”

He estimates more than 40 volunteers have put in more than 20 years of service, many starting out with their own kids in Little League, and continuing on once their children grew older.

A former coach and manager himself, O’Grady said he started helping Little Leaguers decades ago when a neighbor asked him to take her youngster under his wing.

“And I’ve been at it ever since,” he said.

The field will be home to the West and Northwest Little League Regionals, beginning Aug. 5 and ending with the regional championship games on Aug. 13.